At this point in the season, anybody that tells you Philadelphia Union are not a contender for the Eastern Conference crown is just acting silly. Fifteen wins, goals galore, one of the top strikers in MLS, and, of course, Ilsinho.
But anybody that tells you LAFC isn’t the best team in the league, and potentially the best team American soccer has ever seen?
They haven’t been watching.
Here’s some perspective: Carlos Vela, LAFC’s leading goalscorer, also has 15 assists. That’s two more assists than Kacper Przybylko, the fifth leading scorer in MLS, has goals. 42 combined goals and assists means Vela has contributed to as many goals as the entire Real Salt Lake squad — currently in second place behind LAFC in the west! — has created as a team all season.
Just… what!?
Yeah, Vela’s great. But he’s also coming off an injury and on a club that doesn’t need points enough to push him. Expect to see the presumptive MVP on Saturday, but he may not go the full ninety.
That doesn’t mean LAFC won’t be a challenge. Vela’s co-conspirators up top can make some noise, and it wasn’t Vela but striker Adama Diomande that torched Philly for a hat trick in Los Angeles a year ago. On the left, Diego Rossi provides more directness than Vela, and his season has been marked by growth in how he times and spaces his runs when attention is on his prolific teammate.
All of these players are operating in front of the league’s most cohesive and balanced midfields. And, in fact, this may be the part of the pitch where Philadelphia needs to dominate in order to grab three points. There are two things that LAFC’s midfield does exceptionally well. First, they counterpress in an organized — meaning: predictable for the rest of the team — and tireless manner. Included in this: They foul, and they foul smart. Latif Blessing, the ball-seeking missile Bob Bradley deploys to snuff out counterattacks, has committed 52 fouls this season, which is 20 more than Ale Bedoya, the Union’s most foul-prone player. Both Blessing and Bedoya are doing it because they are intelligent and recognize that fouls in the central third of the pitch can be strategic; if Blessing gets beat 1v1, he commits a foul and stops a potential attack from developing.
The second thing LAFC’s midfield does extremely well is make vertical, dangerous passes through the center. With Vela and Rossi drawing eyes, Mark Anthony Kaye and Eduard Atuesta know that lanes will open in midfield if they wait one additional beat on the ball. Kaye, in particular, uses his body to buy extra time as he waits for the right gap to open. If you are slowing things down in midfield because you haven’t assessed your options ahead of time, you’re doing it wrong. If you’re slowing things down because you just saw where space is about to appear: Yes. This is what Haris Medunjanin does as well as anybody in MLS, and it’s what Atuesta and Kaye do consistently thanks to the space created by such a dangerous front line.
Defeating LAFC requires winning 1v1 battles in midfield — both in attack and defense — and a whole lot of defensive running. The Union can’t leave Kai Wagner 1v1 with Vela, and that’s no knock on Wagner; Vela is just that good right now. Brenden Aaronson will likely start on the left because he gives the level of defensive commitment needed to have a chance at containing Vela. Whether Aaronoson is on the left of a diamond or a 4-2-3-1 is yet to be seen, but the young midfielder will likely play a crucial role in his team’s success.
In attack, the big key for Philly is creating enough time for Haris Medunjanin to play through LAFC’s counterpress. Jim Curtin said midweek that Medunjanin has been a Best XI player this season, and he’s not wrong. To bring out the best in the Bosnian, though, there need to be players in good positions around him so he can play around the first wave of pressure then find an accurate long ball over LAFC’s back line.
The Union and LAFC bring the noise to Talen Energy Stadium beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, September 14, live on PHL17.
